Friday, June 29, 2012

So, this has been one long week! Last weekend I was out shopping for groceries and grabbed a few supplies to make some stuff for an awesome workshop called 'green on a shoestring'. It was a free workshop to teach people about being more economical. Topics were about: healthy eating/cooking, making your own home products basically from laundry detergent- toothpaste, buying cloth diapers, health- which was about making your own natural medicines and then my topic: making cloth diapers and everything about the babies bottom care. It was an awesome event, I wish I were able to mingle around to check out the tables, but a handout of tons of recipes were printed inside. That makes me so happy! It was such a benefit to get that handout and to meet a bunch of super friendly people thinking about venturing into or back into the cloth diaper world.
Just to have people come up to my little station open minded to learn about cloth was great. No, honestly just to have them get dressed and come out to the event was awesome!
Here is the only downfall. My internet has been down since Tuesday morning. It should be all fixed by tomorrow afternoon, but I met a bunch of people who wanted to follow my blog to learn more about cloth diapers and making them. I typed out an entire blog on how to make your own shorties, I even video taped a bunch of it for a video to add. I didn't want to publish my blog about making a diaper when I couldn't go online to edit it and move the pictures to the proper areas. (I normally blog on my phone while nursing johnny, then I jump on the comp to edit it). So I apologize for keeping you waiting.
Also, since I am new to blogger, I'm not sure how to edit everything on my blog page. I need to figure out how to add a "follow" button when my computer is turned back on.

I've been working on being a firm mom the last couple of days with hunter because he is so stubborn with stuff, it's my fault he is. It's been very time consuming following through with being stern, but it's starting to work. I will leave all that for another blog.
Today our home insurance people sent out a stove repair guy. He decided we need new back burners, so we get new burners next week. I also decided Friday is my kitchen deep clean day, so I seriously scrubbed it down hard with baking soda and vinegar. Spotless kitchen. I still need to mop the floors. Johnny figured out how to turn on the stove burners O.o instead of buying a stove cover, I removed the knobs and we can put one back on when we need to cook. ..
I'm going to enjoy some coffee while little man sleeps and big man plays in his pool and splashes me. It's so hot outside, but the breeze on the water droplets feels so refreshing.

Monday, June 25, 2012

I started making a diaper rash cream and I LOVE it!! I just love coconut oil in every way, and I love how it works with the beeswax, and I love even more so that *I* made it. Plain coconut oil is just as good, but I wanted to play around a little bit.

It is really hard to give a price estimate on some of these homemade products. Why? It is because you get a lot of use out of every product you buy. Pictured below: coconut oil, I will probably get to use it for 50+ things I make. The beeswax is good for another 5-10 things I can make. The lavender oil will last for hundreds, if not thousands of things I can make. The brown jar is for storage. It is extremly cost effective to make your own products. I also enjoy knowing that there is nothing else added to the stuff I make. No parabens, carcinogens, and nasty things.

5 tablespoons beeswax
4 tablespoons coconut oil
Vitamin e gel cap

Using a double boiler, or a pan of boiling water with a bowl inside (as pictured) to melt your coconut oil and beeswax without burning it.

Once melted, place some on a teaspoon and put in refrigerator for 3 minutes.

It will harden to its finished consistency. Check the cream by touching it, try pulling some away.

Make it as thick or thin as you like. Thicker = more beeswax. Thinner = more coconut oil .

If it is as thick as you would like, remove from heat, mix in gel cap and pour into container. Liquid will solidify.

Have you ever considered using cloth wipes "family cloth" instead of toilet paper? How about flannel "un-paper towels" instead of paper, paper towels? It's not as bad as it sounds!
I was curious about making the switch because I already used homemade cloth flannel baby wipes. I loved the cloth wipes. I decided to get A couple of yards of tie dyed flannel and made 5X5 inch square wipes. I wash them with my diapers. I prefer using these instead of paper.

Just toss them into a waste basket, and when it's time to wash them, toss them in the wash. Give them a warm pre-rinse with 1/4 cup baking soda, we have to use the "extra rinse" option for this. then run a full heavy load with detergent and an extra rinse.

How I made mine:

1 yard flannel fabric
Scissors
Pins
Sewing machine
Marker

Cut out 9x9 squares and sew them right sides together. Right sides would be the nice side, yes, you will be sewing it inside out.

Sew all 4 sides, but leave a 3 inch gap, so you can turn the fabric right side out

Once fabric is turned right side out, you can take a needle and pull out the corners of the wipes.

Iron the wipes, make sure to turn in the un closed gap and then sew all the way around the 4 sides. (you can see the open gap on the bottom of the picture below, when you turn that in and stitch the sides, it will close.)

VIOLA!!! All done. (the smaller wipes are 5X5 and are hand and face wipes for the kids. The hand and face wipes look just like "family cloth" toilet paper.

To make "un-paper towels" you need 11x11 inch squares. Have a basket in the kitchen for your new earth friendly non paper, un paper towels :D a cute design would totally spruce up your kitchen decor too.

*mix all the ingredients. I said to use hot water, just so it melts the coconut oil down whole you mix it all together. Once mixed pour into a regular wipes container and keep your wipes inside of it, change it every few days or when it starts to smell musky. You can also store it inside of a glass bottle.
The coconut oil may solidify. Just run under hot water, sit in a sunny windowsill, shake it up.

I personally love this solution. It smells {AMAZING}. I tend to put my cloth wipes inside of my cloth diaper after a change and the diapers come out of the washing machine smelling like tea tree oil and lavender oil. But I love how oily the solution is, It is easy to glide the wipe over the baby's skin and it also keeps their skin protected from wetness.

This is such a great subject, as it consumes so much of my life. I enjoy saving money as well as "crafting" my own cleaners, detergents, toiletries, medicines and anything else I can. I REALLY enjoy it, it really is a lot of fun.
You can save so much money every month/year by making your own:
•Shampoo/conditioner
•body wash
• toothpaste
•deodorant
•lotion
•diapers
•wipes for diapers
•diaper rash cream
•wipe solution
•laundry detergent
•fabric softner
•toilet paper
•paper towels
•household cleaners

Food:

Another great way to cut back costs is on grocery shopping. Our family has really cut back on junk foods and cut most processed foods out of our diet. I've heard people say that they don't know how to shop and not buy processed foods and that it's overwhelming to them. I was overwhelmed at first but it is SO EASY!! The main rule is to shop on the outside 4 walls for as much as you can and remind yourself anything sitting on a shelf isn't really needed (other than some stuff, oil, beans, flour, sugar, etc)

we try to only shop on the outside of the store because it has all the fresh foods. You have the deli/ butcher, produce, cheese. We try to keep bulk "staples" in our house because I make as much as I can from scratch. I make our dough for pizza, bread, cinnamon rolls, noodles and so on. I make crackers and baked goods from scratch. It really saves a lot of money and truly isn't too time consuming. I find waiting for the dough to double rise would be the longest, and that rises by itself.

Self sufficiency/gardening:

Another great way to save money is starting a garden! Turn over that soil and sow some seeds or give already started plants a new home. Plant as much as your heart is content. We are considering options and are going with a massive choice of vegetables and fruit trees. We are excited to control the "fruits of our labor" by making sure it doesn't get any type of chemical added, all natural-homegrown produce. A handful of chickens for your yard is ideal as they will lay delicious eggs.
I realize not everyone has a yard they can garden in. I lived in an upstairs apartment a few years back, there was absolutely no space to garden there. If you have no space to plant on, look for a community garden in your area or find a family member or friend with the gardening space and see if they want to have it at their place and help/ share.
Along with gardening comes canning. Get directions on canning your veggies so they last through winter.

That covers my tips on food. In the next few blogs there will be recipes to all my homemade recipes for everything I listed above.

Friday, June 22, 2012

We have a bag of lemons that my mom got for us in her Costco trip. I normally cook and clean with them, but decided to make some lemonade with a few and pour some of the lemon juice into my hair as a lightener. It was delicious.
Ingredients:
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
6 cups water

Start by taking the sugar and melting it down in a sauce pan with 1 cup of water. This makes a sweet syrup,
Then pour it into a pitcher and add 5 cups water( we used 4 cups) Stir, add ice and enjoy.

1) melt the butter and add the cocoa
2)stir in sugar and flour
3)mix in the eggs, one at a time
4)add vanilla and mix
5) stir in nuts

Bake on a greased 13x9 inch pan for 30 minutes or until done
(I always stick a spaghetti noodle into the center of my brownies just to check if its done. If the noodle comes out clean, its done, if the noodle has batter on it, its not done.) My brownies looked hard, but they weren't. It actually worked in my benefit as my 4 year old thought they were plastic and refused to try them, until I cut it up and told him it was chocolate (bad move on my end, I will learn one day)

Crackers are a hit in our family. My kids love them, we could eat them with peanut butter, cheese, deli meat, with soups. Oh could we eat them. I like this recipe, a lot! I enjoy making things from scratch as I know what ingredients are being used, we can customize it to our liking. With crackers we can make all kinds of shapes just by using cookie cutters to shape them. you can add your venting holes in any pattern you would like and you can also add color!

Easy home made saltine crackers:
Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp + another 1/2 tsp salt for topping

6 tbsp cold unsalted butter + 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

Heat oven to 400 (you can use a food processor or go by hand)

Put the flour, baking powder, sugar, and 1/2 tsp of salt into a large bowl and mix well.

Add Cold butter in small portions and mix together well.

Add vegetable oil and mix

add water in small portions and mix, th edough should start to form a ball.

Roll dough out as thin as you can get it.

Use cookie cutters to make your crackers

Put on cookie sheet on parchment paper

bake 10 minutes or until slightly turning brown

Remove and brush with remaming butter and sprinkle with salt

That simple! Its so easy, so tasty and a fun activity for my 4 year old.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

I am so behind today. It's a Saturday and I normally work for felix, the sweet elder man next door to me, from 8am-11am but today someone is taking him out for a drive and lunch. I have yet to get dressed, the baby is napping and I am watching a movie on the couch with hunter.
Justin, my dearest fiancé, drove to the store for a bag of coffee and some almond milk earlier today before he had to go to work. I guess Felix being busy was a good thing considering Justin is working and I'd of have to take both kids with me. Anyways, I decide to make an iced coffee. I've been asked to start a blog and to share all my recipes, so I shall share this iced coffee recipe with you all.
I don't have a coffee maker, I have a glass tea pot with a glass drop in infuser. I may share a picture of it one day. It's nothing special. I brew my coffee in that. I also use the blender sized cup on the magic bullet deluxe.
* I will also be baking today, so more blog recipes to follow*

Blend and enjoy it hot, pour over ice for an iced coffee or blend it with Ice for a blended coffee. Just keep adding the ice by cups until you reach the consistency of how blended you want it.
You can use whichever coffee, sugar, chocolate, or extract you like, organic, generic, raw.
A healthy (but very fattening) additive could be a tablespoon of coconut oil. I suggest a virgin, unrefined oil of your choice. You could add the coconut oil to the hot coffee stage, you can also mix it into a homemade whipped cream for the top.
This is very easy, it makes up super quick and you can substitute hot chocolate for the coffee to give the kids a sweet treat. I hope you enjoy it, and I am sure that you can mess around and add different flavorings and such.

Friday, June 15, 2012

I decided to start a blog. I am not a great writer, I have improper grammar and I am not the sharpest little spelling bee buzzing around. Please look passed that as I am learning as I go. I feel as if I am always learning as I go and maybe this is partly the reason for my blog. I basically plan to blog about all the emotions this dance called "life" takes me on, share my feelings, thoughts, daily activities and ideas, projects, talk about my home business and my passion for attachment parenting, cloth diapers, my family and the sweetest two little boys on earth that I am so proud and thankful to call MY children. I hope to catch some followers, preferably other parents and crafters.

I have a feeling I will have very sporadic blog posts, but hey, I'm a girl and a mom, my mind bounces back and fourth on things naturally. ~Kala